NARRATOR
In the summer of 1874, Marshall Twitchell went to New Orleans for the Republican state convention. His brother-in-law, Frank Edgerton, the sheriff of Coushatta, wrote him a letter warning that some of the leading men in town had formed a chapter of the White League. "The purpose of the White League," Edgerton wrote, "is [the] extermination of the carpet bag element. Nothing more nor less." Twitchell's reply was intercepted by the League and published in the local paper. He wanted to call in federal troops, he had written. But they would only come if some "overt act" were committed.

MARSTON
He needed an incident so he could bring federal troops to Coushatta. And he got an incident, but I don't think it was what he was counting on.

NARRATOR
The White League was also looking for an incident. Members staged random attacks on blacks, and when a white man was wounded in one confrontation, they had what they needed. Claiming the Twitchell clan was behind a black rebellion, they siezed Twitchell's brother, Homer, his three brothers-in-law Clark Holland, Henry Scott, and Sheriff Edgerton, and twenty of their black allies. They were forced to sign a document promising to resign and to leave Louisiana forever.

TUNNELL
The majority would like to see these people out of town, safely. After all, they have broken bread with these men. They have entertained one another. They've gone to church with one another.

NARRATOR
Escorted by guards, the white Republicans left Coushatta, carrying all their money and valuables. They headed for Texas.

TUNNELL
They haven't gone far when they look back and see a large body of thirty or forty men riding hard, closing in upon them. Out front is a heavily bearded man, sweat just streaming from his body, and as he approaches the rear guard he screams out "Get out of the way or share the prisoners' fate". The guards get out of the way; they offer no resistance. At the head of the column, the six Republicans suddenly see these men coming down upon them, and one of them screams out, "Mount and ride for your lives." And almost immediately, three of them are shot from the saddle. Homer Twitchell supposedly cried out, "Somebody give me a gun. I don't want to die like a dog." And a bullet hits him in the face a moment later.

NARRATOR
Homer and two others were killed instantly. The other three were captured and shot. All were buried in shallow graves.

MARSTON
Once they were arrested, they were going to die. They had to. Because these men would have come back with a military force the likes of which Red River Parish had never seen, and there would be military tribunals for all of the people involved in this uprising.

NARRATOR
The following morning, Twitchell got the terrible news.

TUNNELL
I imagine Twitchell reading that telegram, and reading it again, and reading it again, thinking there's got to be some mistake. They can't all be dead. Surely some of them were simply wounded.

NARRATOR
The Coushatta massacre made headlines across the country. Many people were shocked that the violence in the South was now targeting whites.

TUNNELL
All these people who were killed were office-holders. So you've taken the public officials of Red River Parish and simply executed them. And if it can happen in Red River, it can happen anywhere. And for freedmen, if the White League can take white Republican officials and execute them in cold blood, what can they do to us? Nobody is safe.

NARRATOR
For weeks following the massacre, local black leaders slept in the woods at night. The massacre was part of a larger push to take back Louisiana from the Republicans. On September 14th, the White Leaguers struck in New Orleans, seizing the Republican-run legislature in a bloody battle. President Grant was alarmed. He had been reluctant to send more troops to the South. But he could not allow this armed insurrection to go unchallenged. The next day, Grant ordered the army to occupy New Orleans. Federal troops entered the State House and forcibly removed the White League representatives, reinstating the Republican government. Twitchell went back to Coushatta escorted by soldiers from the Third U.S. Infantry. He carried with him a long list of suspects.

MARSTON
My great-grandfather, Captain Marston, was rounded up in this. He writes about it. He felt as if he were dragged before a carpetbagger court, a Yankee judge, as he called him. He said he would rather take death here than be hanged by a foreign court in New Orleans.

TUNNELL
In all, twenty-five people are arrested for complicity in the Coushatta massacre. These people are housed in the Coushatta courthouse. But they will never be brought to trial. Twitchell can never get the evidence that will permit him to bring these people to trial -- although he will keep trying, with perhaps disastrous results.

NARRATOR
Grant's intervention in New Orleans backfired. The spectacle of federal soldiers marching into a state legislature was a shock -- not only in the South, but all across the North. Many felt that Grant had gone too far -- overstepped his constitutional powers. "If this can be done in Louisiana," said one senator, "how long before it can be done in Massachusetts and in Ohio?"